Senator Schmitt Blasts Democrats for Defunding DHS Amid Heightened Terror Threats, Throwing Airports into Chaos

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) joined Fox News' America's Newsroom to blast Senate Democrats for defunding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid heightened terror threats and causing significant travel delays and disruptions as TSA agents go without paychecks.

WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

Senator Schmitt On Democrats Forcing TSA Agents To Work Without Pay:

"… This is just the height of stupidity by the Democrats. It's essentially a temper tantrum because they don't like President Trump. They want to ultimately defund ICE, but as your audience knows, in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, The Working Families Tax Cut, we front loaded the money for ICE. So those deportations are going to continue. What the Democrats are doing here will do nothing to affect that. And so really, who is paying the price? The traveling public, employees, the Coast Guard, Secret Service. I mean, think about law enforcement that's been involved. Dana, we heard stories of the last government shutdown caused by the Democrats, where TSA agents were sleeping in their cars to save money on gas. They're now going without paychecks. This is ridiculous. It's time for them to come to the table and just approve, by the way, a funding bill that they already agreed to weeks ago before they started this nonsense that we're in right now."

Senator Schmitt On Democrats' Refusal To Negotiate:

"I think ultimately this has to do with they don't want our immigration laws enforced-at all. Dana, that's what the fundamental question here is. And by the way, remember the legacy media pounded Republicans years ago, if Republicans tried to insert some sort of policy initiative in these funding bills, right? So my proposal, I suppose, is if the Democrats think we should defund ICE and get rid of ICE, put a bill on the floor, it'll lose, but they know that right? This is the same party that believes in sanctuary jurisdictions, where, I think it's important for people to understand, what does that really mean? That means when a criminal illegal alien gets released from jail for rape or murder, they will not tell ICE about it, because they don't want that person deported. So the Democrat Party has completely lost their way on this whole thing. So I don't know what's going to make this happen, but we're not going to kneecap ICE. We're not going to inhibit their ability to enforce our immigration laws."

Senator Schmitt On Passing the SAVE America Act:

"I'm supportive of it. I was in the Oval Office with the President about a week ago talking about this so we can move forward in the Senate. It has a few different components; make sure that people are actually U.S. citizens when they vote, make sure that they show an ID when they vote, make sure you don't see the rampant abuse mail in balloting. I mean, these are common sense issues that we ought to move forward on, and I'm hopeful that we can do that soon."

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